Nearly a quarter century after University of Toronto professor David Buller was found stabbed to death inside his campus office, his family is still living with unanswered questions they never imagined would linger this long. Buller’s niece, Karyn Sandlos, says the grim milestone feels surreal. “If somebody had told me back then that 25 years later we still wouldn’t know what happened, I never would have believed it,” she said in an interview with CP24.com.
Buller, a respected fine arts professor and widely admired figure in Toronto’s arts community, was murdered on January 19, 2001. His body, stabbed multiple times, was discovered inside his tucked-away office at 1 Spadina Crescent shortly before 7 a.m. Investigators back then believed the attack occurred during the day, in a public building, and would be solved quickly. But with no surveillance footage, limited physical evidence, and no suspect publicly identified, the case eventually moved to the Toronto Police cold case unit—where it remains today.
Sandlos remembers receiving the devastating news from her sister and rushing across the city in a taxi. The driver unknowingly passed by the crime scene, still surrounded by yellow police tape. “Part of me thought I should tell him to stop,” she recalled. “Instead, I asked him if he’d heard anything—as if it was happening to someone else.”
Early theories pointed to raised voices and a loud thud overheard by people attending a gathering on the building’s main floor around the time police believe Buller was killed. Students were interviewed extensively, and investigators examined possibilities ranging from a disgruntled student to tensions among colleagues. Sandlos remains unconvinced by theories that the killing was random. “I’m fairly certain it was someone he knew and trusted,” she said.
Her last memory of her uncle is a long bus ride they shared after Christmas that year. They talked at length—about life, about his future, about the things he still hoped to accomplish. “Of course, I didn’t know it would be the last time,” she said quietly. “I’m grateful now for that bus ride.”
Buller was more than a professor to Sandlos. He was a creative force and an early role model. “I grew up having this amazingly interesting adult in my life,” she said. “He was an artist, he was openly gay, and he lived authentically. He showed us what it meant to pursue your passions.” His own journey had been far from linear—first studying advertising at OCAD before abandoning that path to become a painter, often struggling financially, but always driven by his craft.
Today, Sandlos teaches Art & Education at the University of Illinois Chicago. She often feels her uncle’s influence in her work—sometimes so strongly she wishes she could share her accomplishments with him. “He wasn’t around long enough to see how things turned out for me,” she said.
As the years have passed, her family has grown more concerned that crucial pieces of the puzzle may have disappeared. Potential witnesses have aged, moved abroad, or died. “It’s frustrating because someone out there knows what happened,” Sandlos said. “Maybe more than one someone. No one has ever come forward.”
Toronto Police Det.-Sgt. Steve Smith, head of the cold case squad, says that identifying the offender in unsolved cases can suddenly make everything fall into place. “As soon as you name that offender, 15 different things suddenly make sense,” he said.
For Buller’s family, the lack of answers has left a permanent void. “Losing David left a big hole in my family,” Sandlos said. “It only gets filled with our memories of him.” That loss rippled far beyond the family—impacting U of T’s academic community, the arts scene, and Toronto’s queer community, where Buller was deeply cherished.
Students still reach out to Sandlos to share how Buller shaped their lives. “They always talked about him as one of their best professors,” she said. “Someone who pushed them, who cared, who took their work seriously.”
Her family’s search for answers is still not over. “We don’t have certainty,” she said. “But we do have the gift of having had David in our lives. And I will always feel incredibly lucky for that.”